When less than a year remained until the death of the great Optina elder Ambrose, the eighth child, a daughter, was born in the family of the state peasants of the Streletskaya Sloboda of the city of Lebedyan (Lipetsk district of the Tambov province) Polycarp and Ekaterina Zaitsev, who often visited him with their spiritual needs with their spiritual needs.
It happened on November 1, 1890, and because of the cholera epidemic raging at that time, the girl was immediately christened with the name Matrona. Having the habit of taking any of the children with them to Father Ambrose, Polycarp and Catherine brought the nine-month-old Matronushka to him in Shamordino with his blessing. Taking the child in his arms, the monk predicted that at first she would live in a pious marriage, and then she would accept monasticism and “all Optina would be in her”.
This prophecy obviously meant that the future schema-nun Seraphima, the current girl Matrona, would become the spiritual daughter of the last Optina elders and fulfill their covenants in her life. The time has come, and Matrona was taken under his spiritual leadership by the Monk Anatoly (Potapov), through whose wise advice and prayers the future schema and eldress grew up.
From early childhood, the ascetic had a chance to work hard and hard in order to somehow help her parents. Often she had to get up neither light nor dawn and go to work with wealthy people. One day Matrona woke up because a hot tear fell on her mother, who was sorry to wake her daughter. In order not to torment her loving mother's heart in the future, Matrona has since tried to wake up on her own. For all the hard work of the friendly Zaitsev family with many children, the food in their house was the simplest and leanest - kulesh (millet porridge) on the water.
Matrona has always stood out among her peers. The boys teased her with the "nun" and threw stones at her. Once she complained about this to Elder Anatoly, and he replied that when the Lord puts the seal of His chosenness on a person, the enemy sometimes reveals this to evil people in order to annoy the servants of God through them.
At the age of 19, the ascetic married a deeply religious peasant who fell in love with her and the same age as Kirill Petrovich Belousov. In the family of Cyril and Matrona, unanimity, peace and harmony reigned. In 1910 they had a son, Alexander, and two years later, a daughter, Olga. On the eve of the events of 1917, tragic for Russia, the whole family moved to the city of Kozlov (now Michurinsk, Tambov region), which was at that time a large trade center. From that time on, monks of the Optina Pustyn, dear to their hearts, often stayed in the hospitable house of the Belousovs, bringing the works of their hands for sale.
In 1926, another child was born in the Belousov family - son Mikhail. In 1934 they moved to Voronezh. There Matrona Polikarpovna (at that time, after the death of Venerable Elder Anatoly in 1922, already left without spiritual guidance) met and established spiritual communion with the rector of the Archangel Michael Church of the village of Yacheika, Voronezh Region, Abbot Seraphim (Myakinin), an ascetic of holy life. Until his death, Father Seraphim remained mother's confessor and, probably, it was he who tonsured her into monasticism. And in the 50s, she took the schema from the hand of their common spiritual son - Schema-Archimandrite Makarii (Bolotov).
When the Great Patriotic War began, Matrona Polikarpovna encouraged and supported the suffering. Before the German occupation of Voronezh, the ascetic, together with her husband, daughter Olga and three grandchildren, was forced to leave the city. They did not take anything extra with them. Kirill Petrovich was carrying a sleigh with children, and mother carried in her hands a lithographic icon of the Sorrowful Mother of God. Exhausted, they stopped in a village house on the very front line.
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The grandchildren cried with hunger, but there was nothing to feed them. Mother reassured them, saying: "Now, now, guys, we will feed you." Taking the icon of the Mother of God, she retired for prayer and, falling on her knees in front of the image of the Queen of Heaven, with tears asked Her for intercession and mercy. And her pleas were so fiery that from the roof of the house to the sky a pillar, bright as fire, was formed, which was noticed by a policeman who happened to be nearby.
Suspecting that someone was giving a signal to the Germans, he ran into the house, but when he saw a tearfully praying shining mother, he left in mute amazement. The help of God did not hesitate - kind people brought steamed oats and sauerkraut to six exhausted travelers. And the ascetic, remembering this, said: "Prayer, brought from a pure heart, passes through Heaven directly to the Throne of God."
Matrona Polikarpovna greatly respected the Queen of Heaven and always repeated: "How the Mother of God loves us all!" Especially often she prayed like this: "I lay all my hope in You, Mother of God, keep me under Your roof." Mother's husband, Kirill Petrovich, read the akathist to the Tikhvin Icon of the Theotokos every day. He was an unusually kind person, even in the hungry war years he fed the birds with boiled potato peelings and other remnants of meager homemade food. It is noteworthy that after his death, grateful birds accompanied the coffin of their breadwinner to the very cemetery.
As soon as the Germans retreated, the Belousovs returned home. In May 1944, the Executive Committee of the Central District Council of Workers' Deputies of the city of Voronezh received an application from "a group of believers willing to voluntarily unite to perform religious rites in the Orthodox faith" with a written request "to register a religious community at the Nikolsky Cathedral." In the spring of the same year, with the blessing of Bishop Jonah, Matushka became the head of the executive body of the community of St. Nicholas Cathedral, thus setting the stage for a new selfless deed as a patron.
When the future Eldress Seraphima undertook to restore the destroyed St. Nicholas Church, she had only five rubles. Nun N. recalled that she had heard in Michurinsk the story of mother's cell attendant about how, starting this difficult task, she stood in prayer all night - the floor was wet with her tears. And the very next day, people began to offer the ascetic their all possible help, which, with her holy prayers, did not dry out in the future. The cathedral church in the name of St. Nicholas of Christ was almost completely restored in less than a year.
Soon Matushka Seraphima fell seriously ill, retired, and in 1946 returned with her family to Michurinsk. There she lived modestly and inconspicuously, went to church, fasted very strictly: even on Easter she allowed herself to eat only half an egg. The neighbors had never seen her rest. Having accepted the secret tonsure of the mantle, and then the great angelic image, the old woman spent her days and nights in unceasing tearful prayers in front of the cell icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "Seeking the Lost." This image, which she had kept for about 20 years, belonged to the Optina elder Schema-monk Ioasaph (Moiseev) and was passed on to his mother before his arrest.
According to the testimony of her contemporaries, for her great humility, strong faith and ardent love for her neighbors, Schema-nun Seraphima was rewarded with the gifts of the Holy Spirit - she saw the future and performed healings. Monastics and lay people turned to the eldress for spiritual help and consolation. In the years of disbelief, encouraging the Orthodox, she said that the dawn is close, the time will come, and they will open churches, restore destroyed monasteries. Mother predicted the opening of Michurinsky Bogolyubsky Cathedral and the Zadonsky Mother of God Monastery. She knew in advance the day of the end of the Great Patriotic War.
Giving her neighbors soulful advice, mother paid special attention to family people to the need for obedience in marriage. She taught that for married women the family should come first after God and faith - for her it will be necessary to give an answer before the Lord: "First, the family will be asked, and then for everything else." In her married life, the eldress adhered to severity, extremely rarely outwardly showing heartfelt feelings. Never striving for wealth in marriage, having taken monasticism, she perfectly fulfilled the commandment of non-possession.
Often mother spoke in the language of life, quoted the Holy Fathers, although she had not really studied anywhere. By the gift of clairvoyance, she denounced the secret sinful thoughts of people who came to her. Answering questions about the fate of the world, Schema-nun Seraphima prophesied: “If you knew what awaited everyone, your heart would not stand it! Gold will be lying around, but there will be no water. People will think that the water is glistening, and this is a red-hot tar”; “3-4 families will be accommodated in houses with stove heating. People from the city will run to the village. The Lord will take away the weak. There will be great mortality. Whoever remains will endure hunger and great trials. The time will come when you cannot run across one street to another: there will be such shooting."
Mother died on October 5, 1966, at 13 o'clock, a little before she was 76 years old. At the very moment of the separation of her soul from her body, some of the people on the street saw an extraordinary pillar of fire emanating from the old woman's house. The Lord showed that the righteous soul of Schema-nun Seraphima, always striving for Him, ascended to Heavenly abodes. Until the burial, the hands of the deceased remained soft and warm, and the face, according to those who came to say goodbye to the ascetic, shone.
In October 1998, a chapel was erected over the grave of Schema Nun Seraphima. With the blessing of Bishop Feodosiy of Tambov and Michurin, in 2004 a commission was created to prepare the canonization of the eldress.
